Bissell Brothers was conceived in November 2011 by brothers Noah and Peter Bissell, in response to Noah’s homebrewing obsession, and Peter’s interest and burgeoning experience in entrepreneurship and marketing.

The brothers had no experience of any kind in commercial brewing or manufacturing, but they saw a hole in the market, both in types of beer, and ways to sell it, that was untapped in Maine, and spent the next two years on a crash course of personal and professional development to bring their ideas to fruition.

The brewery sold its first kegs of The Substance Ale at The Thirsty Pig, where both brothers had worked during the company’s inception, on December 7th, 2013.

The realization that they were not alone in their desire for something new and different became immediately apparent, and the city was swept up in a fervor over The Substance Ale. Cans soon debuted in February 2014, and the stage was set for a new type of sales model in the Maine beer world.

In April of 2014, the first Bissell Brothers taproom opened at the brewery, located within the fabled Maine brewery proving ground of One Industrial Way. By summer of 2015, Bissell Brothers, together with several choice mobile food vendors, had built an experience that couldn’t be ignored, driven by Noah’s development of beers that would forever change the industry in Maine, such as Baby Genius, Swish, Lux, and Reciprocal.

The team was blessed by the ability to acquire several other units in their multi-bay building, but they knew it wasn’t enough. Just as soon as they had settled in, Bissell Brothers began searching for a larger home.

They found it at a site just as unlikely as the nondescript industrial park they had helped transform into a beer and food mecca — a largely abandoned waterfront site that was once home to the Maine Central Railroad. The audacious developers had a vision that matched Bissell Brothers’ needs, and a deal was struck. After constructing their new brewery and tap room in a 100-year-old former railcar repair building and completing the move from Industrial Way, the new Bissell Brothers brewery and taproom opened to the public on June 4th, 2016.